PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



PHYSIOLOGY, and with it Physiological Botany, were, it 

 was thought, quietly making considerable progress, since 

 the number of contributors continually increased, and 

 though of course opinions differed, none were maintained 

 with any remarkable violence. Then certain individuals 

 appeared who endeavoured to disturb this tranquillity, 

 and not only advocated their own opinions with great 

 violence, but attacked those who thought differently, 

 challenged them, and even in some cases insulted them. 

 I shall especially mention three of these Liebig, Gaudi- 

 chaud, and Schleiden. All three write well, Liebig 

 excellently so ; not one is wanting in genius and inge- 

 nuity; in their zeal, however, they have not all been 

 able to command themselves, but have given way to a 

 violence which, although not hindering them for any 

 time, perhaps even aiding them in acquiring speedy re- 

 nown, is nevertheless always injurious to the cause which 

 they are anxious to advocate. 



Liebig says, in the first edition of his celebrated book, 

 ' Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and 

 Physiology' (Brunswick, 1840), p. 35, " As soon as phy- 

 siologists meet with the mysterious vital force in any 

 phenomenon, they renounce their senses and faculties ; 

 the eye, the understanding, the judgment, and the re- 

 flective faculties, all are paralysed as soon as a phe- 

 nomenon is declared to be incomprehensible." Now 

 this has not really been the case ; they have indeed very 



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